Senate Bill 35, Authorize criminal penalties for nonpayment of “administrative hearing bureau” fines: Passed 35 to 1 in the Senate To authorize additional penalties for failing to pay fines imposed by “administrative hearing bureaus” that most cities are allowed to create for enforcing "blight violations" under a 2003 law. Under that law, cities already have the power to place a lien against the property. The bill would authorize additional fines of $500, 93 days in jail for a second offense, and up to a year for a third offense.

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Senate Bill 38, Authorize wage garnishment for nonpayment of “administrative hearing bureau” fines: Passed 35 to 1 in the Senate To allow a local government to garnish the wages of a property owner who has failed to pay fines imposed by “administrative hearing bureaus” that most cities are allowed to create for enforcing "blight violations" under a 2003 law.

Senate Bill 39, Authorize foreclosure for nonpayment of “administrative hearing bureau” fines: Passed 35 to 1 in the Senate To allow a local government to foreclose on property owned by a person who has failed to pay fines imposed by “administrative hearing bureaus” that most cities are allowed to create for enforcing "blight violations" under a 2003 law.

Senate Bill 218, Repeal sunset on borrow-and-spend "water resource improvement authorities": Passed 92 to 16 in the House To eliminate the sunset on local governments creating new "water resource improvement authorities," which use extra property tax levies and “tax increment financing” schemes to divert other taxing units' property tax revenue to cover debt service payments on debt they incur for various recreation and development projects. The bill would also expand the scope of activities and geographic limits of these entities, letting them borrow and spend for dredging among other things.

House Bill 4126, Revise horseback riding liability waiver: Passed 59 to 48 in the House To revise a law limiting the liability of stables and equine event organizers for injury, death or property damage resulting from an inherent risk of an equine activity, by changing an exception allowing suits for “negligence” so that it instead only allows suits for “willful and wanton disregard” for participants' safety.

House Bill 4002, Increase interest to taxpayers owed refunds: Passed 107 to 0 in the House To require the state to pay 3 percent in interest (annual rate) to a taxpayer who is due a tax refund because of an overpayment (including excessive "withholding"), starting 60 days after the claim is filed.

House Bill 4147, Revise basis of public-safety “special assessment” levies: Passed 57 to 50 in the House To allow local police and fire "special assessment" levies that are imposed on top of regular property taxes to also be imposed on a flat-rate per parcel basis, rather than just on the assessed taxable value of each parcel (which is called “ad valorem” in the tax laws). Special assessments were originally intended to only fund improvements that especially benefit properties within a certain "district," but today are often imposed for core government services like public safety, and differ little from regular property taxes, except they are not subject to a vote of the people and other constitutional restrictions.

House Bill 4138, Ban Mich. National Guard or police from executing federal “indefinite detention”: Passed 109 to 0 in the House To prohibit members of the Michigan National Guard or other state and local government employees and police from participating in the investigation, prosecution, or detention of any person under a recent federal law giving the President the power to order the indefinite detention of persons arrested on U.S. soil, without charge or trial (“section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012”).

SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit http://www.MichiganVotes.org.

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